The dark side of science

Science often creates amazing things, but it's not always good. The new program entitled Discovery Science's "Dark Issues" explores completely real science stories, located between the boundaries of right and wrong and scientific discovery and torture.

Some experiments are considered "the darkest" in the history of science.

Electric chair

Thomas Edison may be the most famous inventor of all time. The electric light he invented as well as his inventions of phonographs and motion picture recorders created a revolution in the world.

However, Edison has not only brought the world technological advances, making life better. He and some of his employees were credited with creating a controversial technology invention: electric chair . And this product became part of the bitter battle between Edison and rival George Westinghouse , who had a patent for inventing alternating current from Nikola Tesla.

Edison believes that direct current is superior to the future. However, the total amount of copper needed to create a one-way electric wire is too large and too expensive. Meanwhile, Westinghouse's alternating current is more efficient. This heated debate about direct current and eddy current has become "the battle of electric currents". And the victim of this war is a direct current and countless convicted prisoners.

Edison tried to prove that the alternating current was as dangerous as it was. However, after not attracting public attention on how to kill small animals, he and some of his employees searched for larger test subjects: humans.

Records show that the first execution of electric seats in 1890 was a disaster. It took about 8 minutes for William Kemmler, a convicted murderer, to die in pain. This offender is turned from inside to outside, literally. The electric chair then continued to be used as a method of death for more than a century.

Anesthesia

Horace Wells never wanted to hurt anyone. In fact, he is famous for saving people from pain. He was the first doctor to use modern anesthesia in surgery.

As a dentist living in Boston in the early 19th century in Boston, Wells developed nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and ether - our two favorite anesthetics, even pulling out his teeth during anesthesia to prove your point of view.

However, the view that surgery could be carried out in a painless way was not easily accepted. And when people accepted it, two other doctors sought a patent for this procedure. In 1847, Wells decided to edit the profile and explained why he did not seek a patent of his own."I had hoped that it must be used freely as the air we breathe ." Wells wrote in his book "A History of the Application of Nitrous Oxide, Ether and Other Gases." for their surgical operation " .

The disappointments of his career eventually led to anesthesia tests on Wells himself . The results are very pathetic. In a drug-induced hysteria, Wells threw acid into two prostitutes. He was arrested, imprisoned, and soon committed suicide.

In a suicide note left to his wife, Wells made it clear that he realized the inevitable consequences of his addiction and tests: "I lived in a way of becoming a madman." According to records, Wells last inhaled chloroform to ease the pain from cutting through the suicide femoral artery.

Einstein's brain

Albert Einstein is known as one of the greatest minds of all time. And do you want to know exactly what created this brave scientist's brain? That's what Dr. Thomas Harvey did in 1955 with Einstein's brain.

Harvey asserted that he received the direction of Dr. Harry Zimmerman , a close friend of Einstein, to take Einstein's brain even when the family of this science genius did not allow it.

What happens after that is recorded unclear in the history books. Einstein's brain seemed to be stored in Harvey's basement for decades. After that, he continued traveling on a cross-country trip with Harvey and a reporter, bringing the final result to the birth of the book "Driving Mr. Albert".

Part of Einstein's brain later fell into the hands (and the lab) of a neurologist from the University of California in Los Angeles, USA (UCLA) named Marian Diamond . Marian discovered that Einstein's brain had an enormous number of glial cells and was significantly different from normal people. She published an article on this topic.

Despite the long journey of Einstein's brain, his source of talent was still a mystery along with why his remains were so arbitrarily kept for decades.

Head implant

The dark side of science shows not only in the past. If you need proof of regularly crossing the delicate boundaries of scientific ethics, meet Dr. Robert White. In the 1970s and until his death in 2010, White was the leading expert in head implants.

Specifically, White, a neurologist, was the first to implant a monkey's head into another monkey's body. Although the monkeys are still alive, it loses control of the new body.

Although the process was terrible, Mr. White's intention was worthy of respect. He was a devout Catholic and tried to find ways to save those who were terminally ill and paralyzed. Far from being a "devil" scientist confining himself in the laboratory, Mr. White has been known as a generally humble man who loves McDonald's fast food.